Florida International University (FIU) is an urban, multi campus, research university located in Miami, Florida's largest population center. The mission of this state university is to serve the people of southeast Florida, the state, the nation and the international community by imparting knowledge through excellent undergraduate and graduate teaching, by creating new knowledge through research, and by promoting public service. Five strategic themes guide the University's development: International, Environmental, Urban, Health, and Information. FlU focuses on these themes with a commitment to quality management and cultural diversity. [unreadable] [unreadable] With its current standing of 33,880 (students enrolled Fall 2002, 69.18% minority), "Health" as a designated mission area, and its stated goal to be one of the nation's top 25 public urban research universities, FlU provides a significant opportunity to develop more underrepresented minority scientists for biomedical research careers. The MBRS program at FIU has fostered faculty research by enabling selected faculty to conduct biomedical research with adequate funding for equipment and supplies as well as salary support for summer research. The program also encourages interdisciplinary interchange and facilitates resource sharing and provides faculty expenses to present their results at national meetings. Additionally, it provides the building of a research experience and data base so as to encourage the faculty to obtain additional, non-MBRS support for their research. This proposal will continue these efforts. After FlU review, 16 subprojects and 1 pilot subproject are contained in the proposal. They represent on-going research efforts within the broad spectrum of biomedical research at Florida International University, specifically in the fields of biochemistry, neurophysiology, immunology, molecular biology, computer science, nutrition, nursing, psychology, biomedical engineering, and the biophysics of molecules. [unreadable] [unreadable]